Sleuths erase online past

The web is often described as a permanent record of our most
incriminating dalliances, brought to the fore by little more than a
quick Google search.

One risque photo or controversial blog post could come back to
haunt you later in life, but a new web start-up called ReputationDefender offers
some degree of hope.

Michael Fertik, the company's chief executive officer, is a
professional web snoop who says he can find pretty much any
information posted about you online, and subsequently help you
remove it if you so choose.

"We find content about our clients or their kids online, and
then if they find it unwelcome, we get it taken down," he said.

"We can't guarantee that we find everything but we haven't had
any disappointed clients yet."

Many internet users don't stop to think about the tracks they're
leaving online, but this is a big mistake, said Mr Fertik, and
recent statistics tend to agree with him.

According to a recent survey of 1150 US hiring managers,
conducted by the US job website Career Builder, one in four
respondents have used internet search engines to screen job
candidates.

Additionally, Mr Fertik says that users of internet dating
services and even college admissions officers are using the
internet to find more information about prospective candidates.

"Momentary errors of judgement that are generally harmless are
now becoming permanently harmful," said Mr Fertik.

ReputationDefender's service is split into two main prongs - one
targeted at adults looking for information about their kids, and
another for these same adults looking for information about
themselves.

The service was launched last month with the help of venture
capital funding. Mr Fertik declined to reveal how much capital the
company received, but it's been enough for him to hire 15
staff.

"We started the company to protect kids," he said, but more than
half of his clients are regular adults who just "want to know what
the internet is saying about them".

One of those adults is 26-year-old Faisal Faisal, an Iraqi living
in Sydney. He came to Australia to pursue winter sports, after
having his visa declined by the UK, Canada and Ireland.

The sport he settled on was "skeleton", which he said is "like
luge but [your body orientation is] head first". Within three
months of taking up the sport, Mr Faisal was "one rank within
qualifying for the [Turin] Winter Olympics", he said.

"The reason I wanted to do it was to carry the Iraqi flag at the
opening ceremony at the Winter Olympics. We've never been there
before," he said.

"I wanted to fight [the war in Iraq] but in a positive way
without harming others. When your pride is hurt, when your country
is invaded, you feel there is something you have to do."

Mr Faisal's plight resulted in extensive media coverage, so
about one week ago he signed up to ReputationDefender in order to
see what people are saying.

"He [Mr Fertik] told me he's had about 25 hits, but he wants to
show me the full report, so I should be getting that in a couple of
days I think," he said.

But Mr Faisal's use of the service isn't typical; many are using
it for far more serious means.

One recent example cited by Mr Fertik is an American doctor, who
wanted to know what his daughter was getting up to on social
networking websites such as MySpace.

Mr Fertik said his staff found the daughter had made friends
"with a 45-year-old man who had no business making friends with
her".

"We told the father and he was shocked, but he took care of
it."

But he insists that the children division of ReputationDefender
isn't just for protecting your kids against sexual predators, who
make up a relatively small portion of internet users.

"Kids have always been precocious; kids have always teased one
another and been the victims of teasing," he said.

"The difference today is that there is a permanent public record
of the teasing. It's publicly accessible for a lot of people and
it's permanent. It could be harmful for many years."

Another example cited by Mr Fertik is a 15-year-old boy who
posts photographs of himself on the internet "drinking beer upside
down or standing next to someone doing that".

"Now you apply to college two years later and you're not getting
into college," he said.

ReputationDefender goes to great pains to ensure that people
aren't using the service for illegal means or snooping on
others.

"We will only work for yourself or your kid. We will not work
for people snooping on others ... [and] we will not work for
felons," Mr Fertik said.

Mr Fertik wouldn't reveal the specific tools and techniques he
uses to find information about his clients, but insists "we are far
more sophisticated than basic Google searches".

"We've got proprietary techniques and measures to do very
rigorous searches on the internet, including searches of sites to
which even very tech-savvy people normally don't have access," he
said.

"Nobody else in the world does this and we're trying to preserve
our lead as much as possible."

ReputationDefender provides monthly reports to its clients and
charges between $US9.95 and $US15.95 per month, depending on
whether you want a six-, 12- or 24-month membership. All prices are
backed with a money-back guarantee.

If the service finds an item of content online that you want
removed, you'll have to pay US$29.95 per instance.

Mr Fertik is confident his top-secret methods are able to get
most offending content taken offline, unless it's published in a
court record or a newspaper.